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Hi! I’m Lilach


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Introduction

In this episode I spoke to Jessica Betancourt, Marketing Manager at SuperSaaS about leveraging automation to get more bookings. She’s a Bronx native & aspiring digital nomad with Asperger’s. She loves abstract analysis and finding creative solutions to unique problems. She believes a solution-oriented focus transforms lives and teamwork makes the dream work.

What You’ll Hear

  • [1:11] About Jessica and her background
  • [6:05] How entrepreneurs can leverage automation for business
  • [10:47] Why most people don’t use automated booking
  • [13:04] Who’s responsible for raising awareness of automation?
  • [17:51] How to get people to book a call with you
  • [20:25] How to reduce no-shows
  • [23:11] How SuperSaaS helps increase revenue
  • [28:48] The most interesting place Jessica has visited
  • [30:17] Final Comments

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About Jessica and her Background

Jessica grew up in New York City and now lives in Amsterdam. She tried different careers and personalities, which she says is typical of females with Asperger’s. She worked as a bartender for many years before getting into operational, administrative and marketing management.

Academically, she wanted to be a physicist, but there weren’t any jobs after graduation. Jessica says she loves marketing and finds it rewarding. A lot of the principles of marketing filter through into her everyday life, and she’s grown professionally and personally. 

She says her job at SuperSaaS is the best she’s ever had, and it’s the first time she’s worked entirely remotely. Workflows and how we work, as well as social norms, have changed post-Covid.

Most of SuperSaaS’ clients are in the UK, the US and Australia, and Jessica likes the mix of cultures and inputs from the people she works with. She never gets bored. She’s been in Amsterdam two years and loves it. She says there are a lot of similarities to New York, which was originally named New Amsterdam. 

How Entrepreneurs can Leverage Automation for Business

Jessica says that in 2021, there’s an assumption that everyone is working online, but that’s not the case. A lot of companies are using workflows from 10 or 20 years ago, and don’t know how or when to use automation. 

For small, independent business owners, especially solopreneurs, it’s hard to know if there’s ever a right time for automation. Jessica says that everybody should take advantage of cost-effective, easy-to-use tools from the beginning, no matter the size or type of business. 

Business owners can start small and look for opportunities to put in little workflows and processes. If you have a team, it increases engagement, improves communication and encourages them to check in with each other. 

Leveraging automation also increases efficiency. When you start a business, you have lists everywhere, and you have to make sense of that and scale it up. Otherwise, you spend too much time updating things and talking to people. Conversations are nice, but they need to be valuable and accounted for. 

There are so many tools out there that it’s less about what they are and how to use them and more about when and how to use them best. Whatever your business model, you need to identify and understand your processes. 

How do they generate revenue and where are the potential blocks? If you do this, then you’re already on your way to benefiting from automation. When you go online to do research for how to do something, not only do you find the tool that fits you best, you’ll have a better idea of how to use it. 

You could look at a complex piece of software that could transform your business, but you can’t do that until you know what it is you need and the process of how to automate. 

For instance, if you’re a yoga instructor and you book people into classes or sessions, then you need to understand what are your operational processes. How many instructors do you have? How many rooms are available and do you have to share them with anyone? 

Do you have to make phone calls in between classes? What needs to be done for the money to come in? Once you know all of those things, then you can work out what you need your software to do and you can customise it for your business. 

You can streamline everything and remove yourself from those processes, and then all that extra time is back in your life. You can use it to grow your business, make more money or spend it with your family.

Why Most People Don’t use Automations in Bookings

Jessica says that it depends on the business model, because larger companies have a better idea of the tools available to them, but she says it’s a combination of two things:

“The first is being intimidated by tools they don’t know how to use, don’t want to learn about or invest in. The second is not knowing what tools are available to them. I’m constantly surprised by how little the average person is exposed to what’s out there. 

“You have to be driven by a need for research and finding solutions, and that’s why I always focus on solution-oriented thinking. That way, if you encounter an obstacle, you’re not going to stop there. Even if you don’t know what you don’t know, you’ll continue looking until you find a solution.

 “Lots of people are unfamiliar with tools that are second nature to me, like Slack. Sometimes it’s developers, or restaurant owners, and I’d expect them to know about them. They could take their business to the next level with just one tool.” 

Who’s Responsible for Raising Awareness of Automation?

Privacy laws are changing and it’s important to protect data, but there are downsides. People’s information is no longer shared with advertisers, which makes it hard for businesses to get their products and services in front of the right audiences. 

It’s better for consumers, though, as we’re getting exposure to more companies. Facebook’s system for showing adverts and its algorithms can be polarising, says Jessica. If we’re shown things that suit our preferences, we’ll only see a narrow selection of adverts, and won’t be exposed to other options. 

We’re also not talking to people about things that are outside of our interests, either. Combined with a personality that doesn’t research or isn’t solutions-oriented leads to business owners not being exposed to the solutions that could transform their lives. 

How to get People to Book a Call with You

Firstly, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to book a call with you. Whatever your delivery method, it needs to look professional, branded and customised. 

If you have the link embedded in a word in your email, it makes you look like an established business rather than someone just starting out. And send people a reminder, too. Jessica says when you have good communication and a good rapport with people, it’s a great incentive. 

If you have a good social media presence, you’re adding value and you’re not just salesy, people are incentivised to book a call. They see that you know what you’re talking about and care about your community. 

How to Reduce No-Shows

One of the best ways is to send reminders before the meeting, and to follow up with people after. Jessica says some kind of email marketing campaign or automated notification is good. 

Firstly, you need to know your user and your processes, and identify where they congregate. How do they like to communicate and how are they already trying to communicate with you? Are you trying to push them to email when they prefer SMS? 

Make it easy for them to communicate with you – send them a confirmation reminder to where they’d most like to receive it. Make sure they get a notification when they cancel, and consider getting one yourself, so you can follow up if appropriate. 

Back and forth email and talking casually about a meeting isn’t enough, because you don’t know for sure if they’ve put it in their diary. Instead, automate sending them a link that will put the date directly into their calendar for them. 

A reminder of the meeting also makes them more likely to attend. If you know your user and you know their drop-off points, it will help you work out where to improve your automation to prevent that happening. 

How SuperSaaS Helps Increase Revenue

SuperSaaS is highly customisable, so it suits businesses across the spectrum. Jessica says what she loves about it is that it’s enterprise-grade software but suitable for people just starting out in business as well.

To increase revenue with SuperSaaS, automate your scheduling process. Brand your schedule, create a link and set it up so that you’re completely removed from the process. Set the software to accomplish the touchpoints for you too. 

If you’ve automated your scheduling process that gives you more time for big-picture stuff. You’re booking more appointments because the tool saves you time. When you’re not spending time on managing availability, you can focus on other things. 

SuperSaaS is also cost-effective, especially in comparison to its competitors. Their tool has been built from scratch and is designed to be affordable. There is a freemium plan, which is usage based – if you take fewer than 50 bookings a month, you get all of the premium features for free. 

Jessica says that she’s spoken to many small business owners who are paying $50 to $60 a month for a scheduling tool. SuperSaaS is cheaper than a Netflix subscription – the plan above freemium costs $6 a month. 

They have the best customer-oriented support team in the market; they answer quickly and the team provides thorough answers to help users solve issues. The support isn’t based on how much users pay, either. You pay as you go depending on how many bookings you get per month. 

Integrations and APIs are also available to build additional functionality to customise SuperSaaS even further. It syncs with all calendars, updates in real-time and can be managed across all devices. You can fully automate your processes, once you know what you need.

The Most Interesting Place Jessica has Visited

The place that fascinated Jessica the most was Meteora on the mainland of Greece, in the mountains north of Athens. It was built in pre-Ottoman times by monks, and sits at the top of very high monoliths. 

The monasteries were carved out of the rock, built to escape Ottoman occupation, and you have to climb a rope to get to the top. Jessica adds that it’s one of the most beautiful places she’s ever seen in the world. The rock formations blow her mind! 

Final Comments

SuperSaaS have recently added a new theme to their software to give a fresh, fun look and design. It’s fully optimised across all devices so you can manage your processes and real-time availability everywhere, as can your clients. 

They put customers first, and encourage people to come and try out the tool and see how it can take their businesses to the next level and increase revenue. You can connect with Jessica on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Jessica Betancourt, Marketing Manager at SuperSaaS. She’s a Bronx native & aspiring digital nomad with Asperger’s. She loves abstract analysis and finding creative solutions to unique problems. She believes a solution-oriented focus transforms lives and teamwork makes the dream work.

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